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Worry is full of “what if’s” and “maybe’s” and “might’s”. It has nothing to do with what will or will not happen. It’s like sitting there making up a worst-case scenario. Don’t do that.

We make up stuff

My sister is moving. There are many steps – selling her house, choosing a new space in an independent living complex, figuring out what to take and what not take. She has herself worried sick.

For no reason. It’ll all simply unfold. She’ll choose one of two apartments that are available. Her house is in good shape and is on the market.

And she’s nevertheless making up scenarios – bad scenarios. If we’re going to make up “what if’s”, make up some good ones!

What if she loves the new apartment and feels the relief of not having property to take care of and finds she feels safe and secure? What if her home sells easily and effortlessly? What if she keeps stumbling on pieces that are perfect for her new apartment? Wouldn’t that feel a whole lot better than those negative thoughts!

Monitor your negativity

It sure is easy to beat yourself up. A friend sent me a link to videos with some lovely stretching exercises and because I haven’t done much physical work recently, the exercises were “hard” for me because they asked more of my body than it was used to. But only in a very good way.

I had two ways to go – I could get very concerned that my body was so stiff and beat myself up for not moving more, or I could be grateful for the videos and make some positive decisions about where I’ll put those movements into my day.

Which one feels better? The positive one, of course.

Don’t settle for second best.

What you look for, you get. What you expect, you receive. Guess who gets to change all that. You do! Expect the best and it’ll be there. Settle for second best, and that, too, is what you’ll get.

See how easy it is? Change your thinking and your world changes with it.

Unfolding frees you up

The practice of unfolding is amazing. It releases you from striving and worrying and over-planning. When you trust that your life is unfolding exactly as it should and that you’ll never be given more than you can handle, you’re good to go – to let it all unfold.

Explore different ideas

That doesn’t mean you sit there like a bump on a log. You get to think and explore and learn new things, but be open to where that leads you. Be open to who shows up for you to serve, what shows up for you to do, and what unexpected places you find yourself in.

It’s an awesome, ongoing adventure, this unfolding life, and all it takes is to simply allow it to happen.

Let go

Although I’m a natural list maker, as I practice unfolding I learn to be more general in my intentions. For instance, I’d like to increase my knowledge of making video logs. That’s a much looser intention than a list of overwhelming steps I might need to take to reach that goal. With that general direction to flow in, I simply notice what opportunities show up and make a decision in the moment about how or if to take them.

When your life is open, great things appear

With a to-do list, your life can get very full. Without a list, your life can become very exciting. Which would you rather it be?

Cut down on your “things-you-should/could-do” list. Keep your to-do list as simple as you can.

It helps to choose only one important thing to do each day. It’s very freeing to effectively accomplish that one thing. Suddenly you have time open and can either choose another “important” thing to do or simply go exploring wherever your passion leads you.

When you choose to let your life simply unfold, can you make a “vision board”? A vision board is a collection of pictures and words that hold your view of the future, your wish for the future, your intention for the future.

But if you let your life unfold, you really don’t vision, do you? You don’t spend time imagining “what if.”

If you don’t vision, if you don’t make conscious plans, how do you “vote” on your future? How do you make stuff happen? You draw your future to you by your present thoughts and actions and beliefs of what is possible and what you deserve. And all that creation of your future happens in the now, the present moment.

Monitor the present in order to direct the future

What you’re focusing on in this moment is exactly what you’re helping to gain momentum and power in the future. If you focus on what’s not going well in your life, you’re simply attracting more of that. To get more good stuff, we have to focus on and think about the good stuff.

Turn the negative around

I keep putting off uploading a short complete book on Amazon and iBooks. It’s technical, I can do it, but it’s not half as much fun as making up new stuff. I have to move the focus off how I feel and picture the positive effect my words may have on someone else’s life. It’s selfish of me not to take those final steps. When I change my patterns and choices in the present moment, I change the outcome in the future.

I sometimes beat myself up for being such a loner. But I can switch that vision of myself by focusing on the creative, focused, prolific productivity that being alone, working alone and having time to think alone produces.

Change how you view what you would put on your vision board

If I see my writing as being in illumined service, that shows up on my vision board as an intention to be a bright light, not a mound of dollar bills. If I hold my regular conversations with like-minded healers as mutually supportive on my vision board, I promote growth and expansion not just a certain number of Skype calls a month.

Notice how you view the results you want on your vision board and see if they can become more expansive and inclusive.

You cannot force your vision

You cannot force a vision, but what you can do is make choices in the moment. Make aligned choices that’ll carry you in the general direction you want to go. The beauty is that each choice opens new doors, new side roads to explore, new opportunities you never expected. So you don’t want a final result on your vision board, you want the flexibility and unexpectedness of simply traveling a path.

An unfolding life can still have a vision board

My vision board would show a woman traveler alone on a path carrying a lantern high. Periodically she stops to draw a map and places it in an obvious place beside the trail so others can find it.

My vision board includes my helping spirits in the invisible world who guide me along my journey. They’re in the mist around me, ready to offer assistance.

My vision board holds side trails that tempt me to explore them.

And my path is always leading upward.

Sometimse on my vision board I turn to walk beside someone in service, to shine my light so they can better see and then take their own steps.

But there’s no end result on my vision board. No final destination. It contains only my journey – the one I’m on now and will continue to be on. Change comes from my choices, in the moment, the choices that take me on a side path or up a hill or across a stream.

The world is shifting rapidly. New technology, new science, new possibilities, new expectations. We either keep up or rapidly fall behind.

Change means constant flexibility, releasing, exploration and adaptation. And those of us who are flexible enough to see, realize and create an alternate option are being called upon to lead.

Change means flexibility

Change can be scary. It means moving out of your “comfort zone”. It means learning new skills and embracing new beliefs. Flexibility is the cornerstone of being a Leader for Change.

Change means releasing

In order to change, we have to let go of what we think we know and what we believe and be prepared to explore what we thought was inconceivable. As science continues to uncover new planets and deepen its understanding of how our body works and discover the relationship of man’s choices and the well-being of our planet, we have to change our minds. We have to keep learning and shifting and keeping up.

Change is about adjusting and modifying what we think we know. Embracing change means to be open and curious.

Change means exploration

What calls to you? Where can you be in service? People are training for the new technology. They’re becoming active in the governing of their community and they actively participate in global organizations that are caring for the world. I work energetically with others all over the world to raise our collective consciousness.

Look at new opportunities. Go where you’re called.

Change means adaptation

There are technologies that are leaving me behind. I’m not a good texter but I can make a video. I’ve never done Instagram but I’m in Facebook communities. Find the new technology or idea that calls to you and make it your own.

Change your thinking

We have to stay flexible in both our thinking and our expectations. What we used to believe possible is now very outdated and limiting. We cannot go back to the familiar, the comfortable, the safe. It’s obsolete, outmoded and stultifying.

There’s no way I can truly identify with the children who are 80 years younger that I am. I did not grow up with the technology they have available now. That very technology will color how they develop and how they see the world. And that’ll be very different from my life experience.

But I can watch and observe. And I can keep expanding my own service in the world and embrace some of the new technology so that I can share with others.

Be a change maker

My personal role is as an explorer and map maker of the unseen world, the spiritual experience, the esoteric concepts that run through the core of our lives.

People can serve in many ways. The knowledge that we each have to be more active in our governing process, at the local level and up, is beginning to sink in. More women are running for office. Young people see themselves as part of the solution.

I am active in transformational communities working to raise the collective consciousness and support light workers in all fields.

Find your place on the spectrum of change and get to work.

Whatever you do to allow change to flow though your life is perfect. Be conscious of the need to change. Be open to new ways of being, new ways to express yourself, new ways of thinking. And then hang on to your hat and enjoy the ride!

Fifty years ago I carefully planted trees in the front yard of my newly built house. I knew how wide they would grow to be and I spaced them accordingly. I thought I left plenty of room.

But today, that yard is crowded. The sun cannot reach the lawn. One cannot see the sky. I miscalculated.

Fifty years is a long time. Things we planted along the line sneak up on us. I wondered what else I over-planted and what I should do about it.

Beliefs get buried in the underbrush. They get covered over by a new plant. And yet they’re there, deep in the undergrowth of our life expression slowing us down, sending us in the wrong direction and no longer useful.

We have to weed out the old, unseen, no longer useful beliefs in order to let in some light.

One destructive belief I have to watch out for is around the concepts that are held about aging. As a metaphysician, I believe my beliefs create my reality. So if I believe aging means deterioration, then that’s what I’m going to get. And because that’s a common belief, deterioration is what I see in the seniors that surround me. I have to work very diligently, with persistence and constant work on my own consciousness, to cultivate the belief that aging means continued vital, active and meaningful participation in life.

Change your thinking, change your life.

Don’t let your expectations become limited

My life turned completely around when, in my early eighties, a friend asked me what I wanted to tackle in the next thirty years. What would I do? How would I serve? That shift in focus totally turned around the life I was expecting and allowed me to evolve into an active, productive, still in service mid-eighties person who is actively spreading light in the world.

I had to weed out the old beliefs of the limitations of aging and replant my life with inspired passion, an altered focus and new forms of service. It has proven to be a beautiful illumined path.

What do you expect of yourself? Do you need to raise the bar?

If you could choose one thing, what would it be?

Let’s say you have an open field in which you can plant anything you want. What would you plant? How much of it would you plant? How would you care for it?

I want to be in illumined service and as I’m not certain what that is supposed to look like I ponder the concept, explore my inner world, and stay open to the nudges and suggestions from my Invisible Self, the Great Mystery, the All–That–Is. I listen. I absorb. I choose. I act.